Sunday, 26 January 2014

This pudding borders on witchcraft and I bet everyone who
makes it for the first time puts it in the oven thinking, ‘this will never work’.But guess what?It does!The idea of pouring hot water over a batter and the oven sorting it all
out is hard to believe but by the time you take the finished pud out of the
oven there will be a lovely sponge risen on the top, and a thick, rich
chocolate sauce at the bottom of the dish.

It really doesn’t look promising going into the oven
(apologies for all the mess and smears around the bowl – I was having one of
those uncoordinated days where everything goes where it shouldn’t!):

I particularly liked where the sauce bubbled up on top of
the sponge and set into a crusty topping.
The sponge and sauce contrasted with vanilla ice cream was the perfect
dish – hot, cold, multiple textures and bold flavours.

This is a real ‘stick to the ribs’ pudding reminiscent of
that chocolate sponge you sometimes got for school dinners. The chocolate sauce is more chocolatey than
school dinners chocolate custard (not that I didn’t love school dins chocolate
custard!)

The other good thing about this dessert is that it takes
barely 10 minutes to get it ready for the oven.
I do recommend standing your baking dish on a tray to catch any
spills. Some of my chocolate sauce did
decide to erupt out of the pud like a rather limp Versuvius. Mmmm, chocolate lava!

Now make the topping: Stir together the brown sugar and
cocoa powder making sure there are no lumps.

Scatter over the top of the batter.

Pour the hot water over the top at a gentle speed so as not
to disturb everything – using the back of a spoon to break the flow helps.

Place on a baking sheet in the oven (this will catch any
sauce that bubbles up) and bake for 50 minutes, during which time the sponge
will rise to the top and the liquid will be at the bottom of the dish transformed
into a thick chocolate sauce.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

For reasons I won’t bore you with, it’s not been a great
start to the year so I felt justified in ‘buying me a little happy’. This manifested itself in an Oxo Good GripsCookie Press.
Regular readers of the blog will know that I’ve never had much success in
piping biscuit dough and usually end up spooning it onto the baking sheet
instead, but with this lovely bit of kit my luck has changed!

The recipe is from the instruction book that comes with the cookie
press and Mr CC declared them the best biscuits I have ever made. I think he’s right. They are lovely: crisp, buttery, flavoursome
and small enough that there’s no shame in eating several!

Because they are small and thin they crisp up quickly from
the oven. We ate some warm and they had
an almost nutty flavour, which was surprising given that they don’t contain any
nuts. When cool that nuttiness goes, but
the cream cheese gives a boost to the flavour; you wouldn’t know they contained
cream cheese but it does add something.

The recipe said the yield would be about eight dozen
biscuits. I never have a lot of luck in
getting the suggested amount thus expected to get half that. I got well over 100! It is the recipe that just keeps on giving! The shape looked so crisp unbaked that I
thought I would lose all that definition on baking:

Line baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil – you
will need about six, but I only had three so re-used them as the batches finished
baking.

Beat together the butter and cream cheese until combined.

Add the sugar, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined.

Weigh out the flour and cinnamon.

Gradually beat into the butter mixture.

At this point you can spoon small teaspoons full of the
dough onto the baking sheet, but I used my cookie press. Fill the cookie press with dough (you will
have to refill about four times) and press your cookies onto the prepared
baking sheet. They don’t spread a lot so
place them as close together as the cookie press will allow.

Bake for 15 minutes, turning the trays halfway through the
baking time. The biscuits are ready when
they are a light golden colour.

Leave to cool for five minutes on the tray before
transferring to a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Apples and blueberries in one cake?That’s two of your five a day in one simple
slice* Plus think of all those calories you’ll burn pouring the cream over the
cake, lifting weights (ok, the spoon) and chewing.It’s the cake for anyone on a January
health-kick*

We had the cake warm, but not hot, from the oven with
pouring cream and it was lovely. The
apples had a little tartness and the sugar sprinkled on top of them had crunch
which gave many lovely textures while eating.

Mr CC is not a fan where fruit is baked in a sponge and
makes it squidgy. He liked this because
the sponge remained crumbly as the fruit sits on top. He’s not normally at home when I bake and the
smell of this straight from the oven was too tempting for him....hence us
eating it warm!

The weather is grim at the moment – grey, dark and mostly
wet. I know we’re getting off lightly
compared to other parts of the country, and indeed other countries, but there
was something cheering about this cake. It
was quick to make, colourful and flavoursome.
I’m not sure cakes can have personalities but if they could this one
would be saying ‘hey, it’s not so bad – spring will soon be here’....and ‘eat
me’. All cakes say ‘eat me’. It’s the law*

Sunday, 5 January 2014

If, like me, you watched the Christmas Bake Off special on
TV you will have spotted this cake as the one made by Mary Berry.It got Mr CC’s attention and within seconds
of that thick ganache topping going on I was made to promise it would appear in
our household at some point over Christmas!Mr CC can never resist a good chocolate cake.

This is a deceptively simple cake to make and tastes of
luxury. The ganache topping tastes like
the richest, most delicious truffle and works so well with the soft, crumbly
Madeira-like sponge.

I made one tweak in that I turned the sponge into a vanilla
one rather than Mary’s lemon version.
This was an act of selfishness on my part!

The sponge was so good I will use it for other cakes – I think
it would take sultanas well, or be nice topped with cream and fruit in the
summer.

The origin of Tunis cake seems uncertain. It was mass produced by McVities in the 1970s
but it is thought the recipe dates back to Edwardian times. However, the reason for the name perhaps
dates back a lot further to the days of Carthage’s wars with the Roman Empire. After
a victory the Tunis warriors would celebrate with cake and wine, which is why
Tunis cake is made for celebrations. I
think a victorious warrior would be very pleased with a slice of this cake
named after him!

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper, making
sure the paper comes up above the height of the tin.

Beat together the butter and sugar until whippy and pale.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if
it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in the vanilla.

Fold in the flour and almonds.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 1 hour, although it’s best to check
the cake after 45 minutes in case it is browning too quickly. If it is, loosely cover the top with foil,
and carry on baking. Mine didn’t need
this, but all ovens are different.

Leave the cake to cool – do not remove from the tin. This is of vital importance!

Now make the ganache topping: heat the cream until just
starting to bubble but not boiling.

Remove from the heat and add the chocolate.

Stir gently to help the chocolate melt. At first it will look a bit of a mess but
gradually the mix will turn into a smooth, glossy ganache.

Leave to cool, but not set.

If your cake has a peak – and you can do it without
de-tinning the cake – level it as best you can.

Pour the ganache over the top of the cake and put aside to set. It’s best not to refrigerate at this point as
it keeps the chocolate glossy.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Now for something that requires no baking and very little
prep, this was one of the stand-out hits of my Christmas goodies! This is the perfect treat for having on
standby in the fridge whenever a cup of tea needs a little bit of something
tasty to accompany it.

You could reinvent this and change the ingredients, for
example switching sultanas for the cranberries, or almonds for the pistachio,
but the combination set out below really worked well – whatever you do, make
sure you keep the mix of chewy and crunchy.

The pistachio and cranberry also looked festive sitting in
the white chocolate. I struggled to get
good photos as it must have been one of the greyest, wettest, darkest Christmases
ever...and, of course, I only remembered to photograph it when I was sitting
with my cup of tea waiting to eat a square.
Impatience and greed does not make for good photos!

Happy New Year everyone – here’s to a year of wonderful bakes
and may you never have a soggy bottom!

Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl
above a saucepan of steaming water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the
water). Be gentle and don’t rush as
white chocolate is more sensitive than other chocolate.

Stir in all the ingredients and spoon into the prepared tin,
leveling the surface.

Sprinkle over the additional coconut and decoration of your
choice; I used bronze sugar pieces.

Refrigerate until set and then remove from the tin and cut
into squares.

Read this great novel!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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Cake Achievement in Film and Television Arts (CAFTA)

Have you seen a cake in a film or tv show that deserves recognition? Has a cupcake upstaged a beefcake?

If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.